The tight rope:

Monday – July 19, 2010

The tight rope:

Did you ever stop to think about the tight rope that this nation crosses everyday in our foreign policy? Did you ever stop to think about how one country can effect the
outcome of another country’s foreign policy? Did you ever stop to think about how we have arrived at the point we are at in our foreign policy today?

I read a report by Stratfor. (http://www.stratfor.com/) It was a paper that described how the Soviet Union collected intelligence on the U.S. during the 1920’s and ‘30’s. The Soviet Union had developed a unique way of collecting intelligence that it continued on through the Cold War and, most likely, today. Remember the Cold War? It was fraught with danger, intrigue and the threat of annihilation by the Soviet Union or the United States. Fortunately, we had great Presidents, except for Jimmy Carter, and fortunately, we had great Secretary of States, except for Warren Christopher, the Secretary of State during the Carter Administration.

During the Reagan administration, and Secretary of State James Baker forces were set in motion that culminated during the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush’s administration. These motions were like a wave of circumstance, and because we outsmarted them, that brought the Soviet Union to collapse under its own weight.

Though this was not the topic of the report, we must consider the history that led to the conclusion of the war and how the new Cold War is warming up once again. The Soviet Union learned that they could be far more effective with directing their foreign policy if they had people that were at the top of foreign governments. They knew that if they could direct the outcomes of conflicts by sympathetic people, who were not members of the Soviets Union, but willing accomplices, they would be more successful at moving their agenda of world domination. They knew that patience and dedication, by a few, would have profound effects on the many.

The Stratfor report went on to explain that: “They are not stupid, and they are extremely patient. If we were to guess — and we are guessing — this was a team of talent scouts. They were not going to meetings at the think tanks, because they were interested in listening to the papers; rather, they were searching for recruits. These were people between the ages of 22 and 30, doing internships or entry level jobs, with family and academic backgrounds that would make employment in classified areas of the U.S. government easy — and who in 20 to 30 years would provide intelligence and control to Moscow.”
The Soviets had four parts in their plan, and they were successful at every stage. The four parts, when fully initiated, would cover not only the career of the candidate, but the career of the Russian who worked in Moscow. The four parts of the plan were:


· Identifying likely candidates,
· Evaluating and recruiting them,
· Placing them and managing their rise in the organization,
· And exploiting them.

On the other hand, The United States strategy was one of exploiting information through the direct purchase of material or through monitoring and or listening in on conversations through technology and or boot’s on the ground intelligence teams.

The report went on to say: The United States can thus recruit sources (and sometimes it gets genuine ones). It can buy documents. But the extremely patient, long-term deployments are very difficult for it. It doesn’t fit with U.S. career patterns or family expectations.
The United States has substituted technical intelligence for this process. Thus, the most important U.S. intelligence-collection agency is not the CIA; it is the National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA focuses on intercepting communications, penetrating computer networks, encryption and the like. (We will assume that they are successful at this.) So whereas the Russians seek to control the career of a recruit through retirement, the NSA seeks access to everything that is recorded electronically. The goal here is understanding capabilities and intentions. To the extent that the target is unaware of the NSA’s capabilities, the NSA does well. In many ways, this provides better and faster intelligence than the placement of agents, except that this does not provide influence.

Our current group of State Department officials, their underlings, our current bureaucratic growth and the systematic destruction of liberty, is a direct result of 50 years of this assault. Our forefathers, especially Washington, warned of the dangers to liberty by badly constructed foreign policy and by the establishment of political parties that might favor another government over another.

Washington said: “Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have possession.”
Washington also acknowledged the fact that political parties are sometimes beneficial in promoting liberty in monarchies, but argued that political parties must be restrained in a popularly elected government because of their tendency to distract the government from their duties, or to create unfounded jealousies amongst groups and regions, raise false alarms amongst the people, and provide foreign nations and interests access to the government where they can impose their will upon the country.
This week, The State Department will actively pursue relations with Pakistan. The Afghan War will be the focus. However, Pakistan presents a far greater danger, because of their nuclear weapon arsenal. Iran and Russia are also actively pursuing relations with Pakistan. We know two things. Russia needs to promote relations around the world and Iran needs a government that is sympathetic to its goal of a nuclear rich nation. While we are desperately trying to secure the Afghan and Pakistan borders we also are walking a tightrope in the world of diplomacy to prevent Pakistan from going to the other side to create a new alliance.
The other alliance to monitor will be Iran and Venezuela. Russia is still in the middle of this, as well. Again, we must walk that tightrope. As you know, Russia and the United States have just completed a deal to trade their spies for our spies. I wonder where the other spies are that will be walking the tightrope.
The foreign policy challenges to our country going forward are mixed in a maze of difficulties. I only hope that our government is working for our best interests. I hope that those in high power are not the recruits that we know about. I hope that the tightrope will be long enough and forgiving enough for the inexperience we have at the top.
Washington said: “The marvel of history is the patience with which all men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.”
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: On this date in 1954 West German secret service head Otto John defects to East Germany. In 107 days we have an opportunity to start down the tightrope of recovery and I am not speaking about the tightrope of defection!